Today, the State Department responded to a letter from Greenpeace USA Executive Director Annie Leonard announcing that Secretary Rex Tillerson will recuse himself from decisions surrounding TransCanada’s permit application for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.
In response to the announcement, Greenpeace Senior Climate and Energy Campaigner Diana Best said:
“Rex Tillerson’s recusal from the Keystone Pipeline decision might have never been transparent to the public without people flooding the lines of the Office of Government Ethics today. We must keep pushing this administration into the spotlight and demanding that ethics watchdogs hold these individuals accountable and make these decisions regarding rampant conflicts of interest transparent.
“Greenpeace is also requesting that the Office of Government Ethics make public any information relevant to this decision, including any information about recusals, waivers requested or sought, and further ethics disclosures.
“The people will have to watch Trump’s cabinet of billionaires and corporate executives like hawks. In the meantime, the Office of Government Ethics should consider adding more phone lines.”
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Contact: Cassady Craighill, [email protected], 828-817-3328
Additional Links
The letter to Greenpeace from the State Department
